Planetarium

Planetarium

Explore the universe with us

Our geodesic dome is installed with a digital, fish-eye, full-dome projection system. The 45-seat Planetarium is wheelchair accessible. All programs are live and interactive with audience participation in various activities. Questions and exploration are encouraged!

Planetarium doors open every 45 minutes, starting at 11:30 a.m., with the last show opening at 2:30 p.m., per the schedule below. Programs run approximately 30 minutes.

Now Showing

Imagine the Sky Tonight
11:30 a.m., 1:00 p.m., and 2:30 p.m.
What can you see in the sky on a clear night? What shapes can you imagine among the stars? We will give you a star map and teach you to find constellations, the starry patterns of the night sky. We will also see planets and other hidden treasures among the stars. We will even imagine that we are flying away from Earth to make observations from far off in space.

Investigating Jupiter—Then and Now (NEW)
12:15 p.m. and 1:45 p.m.
Since ancient times, people have followed Jupiter as it moves through the night sky. You can, too, in our new, interactive Planetarium show. Investigate Jupiter just as Galileo did when he first observed it with a telescope, and learn how the planet is being studied right now by NASA’s Juno spacecraft.

Tickets

Planetarium Tickets

Tickets are $4 per person, and are sold at the Visitor Services Desk on a first-come, first-served basis. Everyone must have their own ticket. Planetarium Membership Passes must be exchanged at the Visitor Services Desk for that day's tickets.

About Our Planetarium

The audience is part of the program

The staff of the Lawrence Hall of Science Planetarium have developed an international reputation as leaders in the design of audience-participation planetarium programs. Over 55 million people have explored the skies through planetarium programs developed here at the Hall and offered at 220+ planetariums nationwide.

State of the Art Viewing!

Experience our all-digital projection system and Digitarium Epsilon fulldome video projector, with the option of running either the Digitalis Edition of Stellarium or DigitalSky2 from Sky-Skan, Inc. Fulldome video allows images, video clips, and other visuals to be seen anywhere on the dome. Visitors can see the sky from anywhere and any time on Earth, but we can also even "leave" Earth and "fly" throughout the Solar System and throughout the Universe!

50-person capacity in two rows of bench seats with reclined backs, with wheelchair access

Sound system by Pro Home systems, using Meyer Sound components

Just as they have since our first Planetarium was constructed in 1973 (with a GOTO Mercury opto-mechanical star projector), all of our programs continue to be completely live and interactive, so that activities and your questions are part of the program.

The Search for Another Earth

The Lawrence Hall of Science and the SETI Institute are the lead education and public outreach institutions for the NASA Kepler Mission, which has confirmed almost 1,000 planets outside the Solar System, with thousands more awaiting confirmation! You can access information about the mission's planetary discoveries through the Hall's Planetarium shows, school curricula, and activities, as well as in materials on the NASA Kepler Mission's education website.

Photo courtesy of nasa.gov

The primary Kepler Mission was to find Earth-size planets orbiting other stars in the “habitable zones" of stars—where liquid water, and maybe even life, could exist. The mission has been wildly successful, with several hundred planets discovered, many of them about Earth-size, and many in their stars’ habitable zones, though few with both qualities.

After four years of collecting data from stars in one specific area of the sky, the Kepler spacecraft lost the function of two “reaction wheels” necessary for precisely pointing the Kepler Space Telescope at the target region. The telescope itself is perfectly functional. Kepler engineers and scientists figured out a clever way, using the two remaining reaction wheels, to point the telescope at targets along the band of sky known as the ecliptic, which is where Sun’s orbit appears in the sky. So in May 2014, a new mission, called K2, began that still searches for planets, star clusters, variable stars, and even galaxies.

The Hall's Planetarium now features two new short shows: Searching for Other Earths (about how Kepler discovers planets) and What's in Your Zodiac Sign? (about the new Kepler K2 Mission). Learn about these shows in “Now Showing”" section above.